Really Thrifty Home Decor

I am in a place that I am tired of my surroundings, but not wanting to spend much money at all (if any) to change it up.

If necessity is the Mother of Invention, then some of the things I’m inventing would cause my Mother to not approve ;)

Like this one. Free wall art.

I wish I had taken a before pic, but for some reason I didn't. So lets use our imagination. A $1 garage sale print in frame.

A tacky Gold frame, large off white mat, smaller metallic gold mat, and a reprint of an oil painting of a girl gathering flowers. Got it?

The boys didn't…. GET it, that is.

Took it all apart. Spray painted the frame black. Looking better already. Spray painted the gold mat black. Stared in wonder to see that it worked.

Painted over the girl with white latex paint. Just so it wouldn’t bleed through whatever I was about to do.

Most fine art has a bead of icky glue around it, to hold the mat in place like this one does, right?

Initially planned to make a checkerboard pattern of black and whites in Paintshop: a damask square and a polka dotted square, but it looked like… well, the girl was better.

Started thinking of the boys, and what would be appropriate for them, and their bathroom.

Rolled my eyes and sarcastically thought, “Biohazard sign”.

Hmmm. Magic light bulb.

I typed “Emergency Safety Shower” in Google Images. Got to page 3 or 4. Found my next adventure.

(not linking… since I really stole this image, but since it wasnt for sale at the website I got it from, rather it was for educational purposes, I felt better)

Printed it out on my normal black and white inkjet. Too light. Grabbed my scrapbooking markers. (A million dollars worth of Zig’s ought to be good for something) and colored it. Yes, like a 4 year old, I colored it.

Put it all back together

And watched the boys crack up laughing. I love it.

Cost – 1 outdated, too girly print from garage sale - $1

On the wall next to it, I took a glass-less frame that I had also spray painted in my frenzy, and just put a keychain that one of the boys keeps leaving on the sink. It has a special nickel in it (our last name – Nickols) and just nailed it in the middle. More free.

I just adore free!